A Geopolitical Background of “Istrianism“: An Analysis of Istrian Regional Identification

Sa？etak This paper examines the background of regional affiliation in Istria, more exactly, the Istria County in the last twenty years. Analysis of the data from three consecutive censuses (1991, 2001 and 2011), as well as analysis of results from local elections in period 1993 -2013, demonstrated three facts related to regional identity affiliation in Istria. From the point of geographic and cartographic analysis, it can be concluded that there is no equivocal Istrianism embedded in territorial roots in the Istrian County, both in the context of time and place. Significant differences in the three analyzed census years, but no trends the levels of municipalities indicate that the Istrianism is somewhat an ambivalent phenomenon without prominent trends or constants. In addition, it can be concluded that this is not even a successful project of a multicultural melting pot, as all these years IDS claimed. It can be also concluded that the IDS, in political terms, is not the sole holder of these ideas. A final conclusion strives to prove that proclaimed connection between researched regional identity and European identity is also populist, not real one